Dynamics of Internet Ecosystems: A Case Study of Tencent

Business ecosystem theory argues that firms work cooperatively and competitively to support new products, satisfy customer needs and eventually incorporate the next round of innovations. In this paper, to demonstrate how the process occurred we present a longitudinal case study to find out how Tencent acted in every stage of a business ecosystem. The authors conclude that an evolution of business ecosystem could go through the four stages with cooperation and competition between firms in the ecosystem: birth, expansion, leadership and self-renewal.